I note that in Texas, there is a group of health care workers who are refusing the vaccine as "experimental", which it is not.

As these nurses work for health care facilities (at least so far) it's as issue as the most vulnerable and health compromised people are there. On top of that, the pandemic is ongoing among the unvaccinated .- well laid out in WaPo https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/covid-rates-unvaccinated-people/

The B.1.1.7 (UK variant) is now the most prevalent strain in the US and is 50% more transmissible and 60% more likely to progress to serious disease. I expect them to infect and kill some patients when the fall surge comes - if they're still unvaccinated and caring for patients.

This puts the hospitals these people work for in a difficult position, particularly as it's Texas, where an individual's right to do what they want seems to trump any group responsibility for public health. Not holding my breath for any legislative solution (it's TX). On the bright side, it's a "right to work" state.

OK, so why might this be related to HIPAA? Well, unlike most other employers, hospitals are subject to HIPAA, but, based on my likely incomplete understanding of HIPAA, it restricts their releasing information they have, not asking for medical information from their employees.

I plowed through HIPAA some years back because I'd been using "HIPAA compliant" as a proxy for relative security in cloud services, realized I didn't really know what it said, decided to fix that...